Quinn Fenton and the Time and Space Protection Agency

by Ethan Bibile

  As the crew were busy attending to Aboan below, Quinn scrambled down the ladder, and once he reached the platform below he climbed down the rope net.

  Quinn sprinted down the stairs that led below deck as fast as he could. A few of the crew members turned and noticed him sprinting for the descending staircase and gave chase. Quinn turned around and shot wildly, managing to hit a few of the crew members.

  Quinn continued running, jumping down the stairs when he got to them. He turned around and shut the door he had just run through to buy himself some time.

  Descending deeper into the pirate’s ship, Quinn went through the labyrinth of hallways, making turn after turn, running past room after room.

  He first needed to make his way to the engine room. If he had any hope of not being followed, then he needed to destroy the engine of the ship. They would most likely be able to fix the engine after its destruction, but hopefully not quickly enough to give chase to him.

  Quinn continued going down the staircase after staircase, going deeper into the humongous pirate ship. He could hear the pirates running through their own ship searching for him. Their voices echoed even as far down as the level Quinn was on as they frantically searched for him.

  Lucky for Quinn, he managed to find the engine room quickly. He opened the door that led to the room and ran in, looking around the room. It was huge, pipes, tanks, engines, controls everywhere. Half of this stuff, Quinn had no idea what it was.

  Quinn pulled out his gun with his left hand, pointing it into the room. Having no idea what he needed to destroy, Quinn began rapidly firing around the room. The laser beams from his gun collided with several pieces of machinery which caused them to explode. The explosions consumed most of the contraptions inside the room, destroying them completely. Quinn slammed the door to the engine shut to spare himself being engulfed by the flames.

  Not bothering to waste a single second, Quinn tore off down the hallway and down more staircases. He needed to now make his way to the prison to free everyone who had been wrongly imprisoned. As he turned a corner, he ran into a group of crew members trampling down the hallway. After a brief struggle, Quinn continued running. He’d certainly gotten the hand of shooting.

  Quinn jumped down the final set of the stairs and sprinted down a hallway. He skidded to a halt as he came to the brig and flung the door open.

  All the prisoners remained but since Quinn had disabled their cells, they simply milled around in the middle of the room. None of them really seemed to be sure of what to do.

  “Quinn!” Called Gantal from the group of people. She came up to Quinn, the wide eyes embedded into her wrinkly face staring at Quinn.

  “What’s happening?” She asked. “The cells, they just-”

  “Yeah, I know,” Quinn said hurriedly, his head flickering to the door every few seconds, terrified of a run in with the pirates. “I’ll explain later, we’re getting out of here. All of us,” Quinn said, and he watched as the prisoner’s faces all light up.

  “C’mon,” Quinn said, directing them all out the door. He led the way out, making sure that everyone had followed before heading towards the huge hangar which was only in the next room.

  Quinn opened the unlocked door and gestured for everyone to run into the room. He could hear voices above and he gestured for everyone to be quiet.

  Luckily for Quinn, the pirates had not disposed of the Audion just yet. It stood to the side of the hangar, the large glass hangar doors next to it, these doors being their ticket out of here.

  Quinn led everyone to the Audion, where he opened the cargo room ramp which descended onto the ground. Quinn ran up the ramp and into the cargo room, opening the door to the lounge and began to lead everyone in.

  “Quinn?!” Morgan’s voice came from all directions in the Audion, much to Quinn’s delight. Morgan was obviously surprised that Quinn had made it out alive.

  “Hello, Morgan,” Quinn said in quite a cheery voice, smiling. “We’re all escaping, I need you to turn the engines on for me,” He had barely finished saying it when the hum of the engines came from below.

  “Alright,” Quinn said once he had loaded everyone into the ship. “I’ll be back in a second. Once I get back, get ready for take-off,” Quinn instructed Morgan, before running back out into the hangar.

  Quinn sprinted over to the control panel that was on one side of the room, a huge array of buttons adorning it. Quinn frantically looked around until he found a button that seemed to look significant and he pressed it.

  Luckily, it was the right button, and the glass doors on the bottom of the hangar began to open, a loud churning noise filling the entire hangar.

  Just as Quinn turned to run back to the Audion, the door to the room banged open suddenly. Quinn spun around to see pirates spilling through the doors.

  “We got him!” Cried out one of the pirates, his voice hoarse from yelling. “He’s escaping!”

  Quinn swore under his breath as he sprinted back to the Audion, the pirates giving chase.

  “Morgan!” Quinn screamed out as he sprinted as hard as he could back to his ship. “Shut the door! Shut it!” Luckily Morgan didn’t question Quinn like he usually did, and the cargo ramp began to ascend. Quinn sprinted harder, knowing if he didn’t make it into the Audion in time then all was lost for him.

  Quinn could hear the pirates behind him, screaming out things to Quinn. There must have been quite a lot of them, as their footsteps echoed off the walls.

  Quinn pushed off the ground with his feet as hard as he could, and he flew somewhat gracefully towards the closing cargo bay door. Quinn made it through the small gap, rolling onto the cargo room floor. He got up sprinted through the lounge room as the cargo ramp shut behind him. The entire pirate crew banged against the ramp, banging on it with their hands, screaming for Quinn to let them in.

  “Morgan, start up the thrusters!” Quinn yelled out as he jumped up the stairs ascending to the cockpit. The escaped prisoners stared at Quinn in wonder almost as he ran past them.

  The thrusters started up as Quinn slammed open the cockpit door, the Audion beginning to move forward. Quinn jumped into the Captain’s seat and took hold of the levers, pulling one forward and one back to turn the Audion so it faced the large opening in the hangar that would lead to freedom. Quinn knew they needed to escape quickly. The pirates had managed to break into the Audion before and they would be able to do it again.

  Quinn steered the Audion towards the open hangar door, knocking pirates left and right as he did. He could see out the cockpit window that crew members were continuing to spill through the doors. As Quinn looked on, he saw Aboan shove several crew members out of his way looking completely deranged, infuriated that had been beaten by a seventeen-year-old. Quinn looked directly at Aboan, who looked directly back, snarling. Quinn smiled and winked at Aboan, which caused him to roar in anger and sprint for the Audion.

  The deranged pirate’s Captain’s final attack on Quinn came to no avail though. Quinn flew the Audion through the hangar doors and out to safety. As soon as they were out into space, Quinn pushed forward onto both thrusters and the Audion flew forwards. Quinn flicked a few additional switches, igniting the speed accelerator his father had installed months ago, the ship shooting forward even faster than before.

  “We did it!” Quinn shouted in jubilation, throwing his hand up into the air, spinning around happily in the Captain’s chair. “We did it, Morgan, we did it!”

  “How though?” Morgan asked in utter disbelief, amazed Quinn had escaped a group of pirates.

  “Took your advice. Fought my way out,” Quinn said smiling as he stood up out of the Captain’s chair. “Could you fly the ship for me for a while Morgan? I need to go talk to everyone.”

  Morgan took over flying the Audion and Quinn walked down the stairs into the lounge room where everyone was standing around, talking nervously. Upon seeing Quinn, everyone’s eyes lit up, turning from fear to joy. The all began to clap. The forty or so prisoners cheer
ing on Quinn for saving them all from danger.

  “Thank you, Quinn, thank you!” Gantal said, running up to Quinn and hugging him. She wasn’t the only one. Plenty of other people began hugging Quinn. They were all eternally grateful for what he had done for them, their praise coming from every direction.

  “Thank you, everyone,” Quinn said humbly, smiling around the room to see beaming faces staring back at him. “I promise you, I will return every single one of you back to your homes,” This promise only got him even more praise. The cheering recommenced as Quinn tried to politely beat down the praise.

  Two days later Quinn stumbled into the cockpit, exhausted. He had spent the last two days going around the galaxy to return each of the prisoners to their homes. They had all been incredibly grateful to him, but he was exhausted. He’d barely slept in days and hadn’t had a proper rest since before the pirates captured him.

  “Well Quinn, that was very noble that you did that,” Morgan said, commending Quinn as he slumped into the Captain’s chair.

  “Thank you, Morgan,” Quinn said as he reached into his pocket, pulling out his storage device. “I haven’t been able to tell you with flying around the galaxy, but the pirates were working for Agross.”

  “What?” Said Morgan, taking aback, clearly not expecting this news. “Why? What were they doing?”

  Quinn shrugged. “I’m not sure exactly, but apparently they were taking us all to him,” He sighed in relief to be out of that situation. “But while I was escaping, I made it into the bridge and on one of their computers were these files, all on Agross,” Quinn said smiling, holding up the storage device in triumph.

  “And you got all of that information?” Morgan asked in disbelief. “Just like that?”

  “Just like that,” Quinn said, smiling. He plugged the storage device into a port on the dashboard and turned the cockpit window into a screen. Quinn took a deep breath in anticipation as he opened an application that would allow him to see all the downloaded files. However, as he went to click on the virtual folder that had all the files in them, a message came up on the screen.

  “Encrypted?” Quinn cried out in frustration, throwing his hands up into the air. “Seriously? I can’t open it, really?” Quinn stared at the message on the screen. “Can you decode it, Morgan?” Quinn asked desperately.

  “I should be able to. But these files have been encrypted incredibly well, it’s going to take me a while,” Morgan replied.

  “How long?” Quinn asked, annoyed to have come this close to information yet to be stopped.

  “A couple of weeks maybe? Maybe even a month or two,” Morgan replied.

  Quinn sighed, running a hand through his hair.

  “Well, could you put the files under the decoding program right away?” Quinn asked, and Morgan stared this task immediately.

  Quinn stood up, frustrated yet excited at the same time. The information he was after was so close yet so far away.

  THE ABANDONED COLLECTION

  A person’s eighteenth birthday was something huge on Nespritia. Quinn guessed it was one of the traditions humans brought with them from earth and other species had adapted to it, yet he wasn’t quite sure.

  He had always imagined himself having a large eighteenth birthday. That had always been the plan he had dreamed of with his parents. His mum especially had talked it up, telling him it was going to be an amazing party. They had planned on inviting the entire family. All the Fenton family members and other extended family living upon Nespritia. Of course, his friends would come, not that he had an extensive lot of them. Some family friends too and then perhaps some other odd people that he knew.

  Never, in all his life had he imagined he would be spending his eighteenth birthday in the year two thousand and sixteen, completely alone with the exception of Morgan. Nor did he imagine he would be spending it in the Audion, floating through space with no direction of where to go.

  Of course, he had to change his birthday too. His birthday had originally had been April the fifth. But of course, now all of that had changed due to the time travel. So that he still was seventeen for a full three hundred and sixty-five days, he calculated that his new birthday was on November twenty-nine. He had left his home time on October twenty and arrived in two thousand and sixteen on June fifteen. He simply just had to change his birthday.

  Quinn sighed and sat up on the morning he turned eighteen. The thought that he was a year older only jumped to him a few moments after waking. Usually, the thought would pop straight to his head but this year he had no reason to celebrate, so the excitement had not built at all.

  “Happy birthday Quinn!” Morgan said excitedly, and he played a cheering sound effect through the speakers that Quinn couldn’t help shaking his head at.

  “Thanks, Morgan,” Quinn yawned, stretching his arms up in the air, still sitting up in his bed. He looked around the room, blinking as he tried to get crystal clear vision. “Wow,” Quinn exclaimed, despite not having much expression in his voice. “I’m eighteen now, I won’t be breaking the law whenever I go to Krezar,” Quinn shrugged. He could tell if Morgan had a physical body, he would be shaking his head at Quinn right now.

  “That’s the first thought that comes to mind?” Morgan asked, and Quinn had to laugh. He swept his feet out from under the blanket and put them on the floor, which sent shivers up his spine. Quinn looked around the floor until he found his pair of slippers and slipping them on, enjoying the warmth that spread through his body.

  “So, is there anything you want to do today Quinn?” Morgan asked as the eighteen-year-old opened his bedroom door, walking down the corridor towards the kitchen.

  “I dunno,” Quinn replied, shrugging as he ran a hand through his hair, pulling it to one side so it formed a slight wave shape. “I saw Laura yesterday and apart from Krezar I have no other planets that I have ties to, do I?” Quinn asked as he entered the kitchen. He went over to the breadbasket and extracted two pieces of toast, which he put in the toaster which resembled the one he had had on Nespritia. He lent against the bench as he waited for the toast to cook, making sure he got it out of the toaster at just the right time, so it didn’t overcook. Quinn sat down at the table with his toast once it had butter and jam on it, beginning to eat his breakfast.

  “It doesn’t feel any different being eighteen,” Quinn shrugged, thoughtfully eating his breakfast. “Feels the same as being seventeen.”

  “That’s because we’re in the middle of nowhere,” Morgan replied, and Quinn laughed lightly, shaking his head slightly. “So, no plans on being captured by pirates or jumping out of a building like a lunatic today?” Morgan asked sarcastically.

  “Haha,” Quinn said. “Good things came out of both of those events. I met Laura and I got all of those files on Agross,” Quinn said, indicating these two points with his piece of toast, before taking another bite.

  “Maybe I’ll just visit some random planet today,” Quinn said as he chewed. “What’s the closest planet to us?” Quinn asked Morgan. He waited for a second while Morgan found the information he was after.

  “Well, there is the planet of Aqrastion. It’s the site of a war zone that happened not too long ago. The information I’ve got here says that the people were attacked by a race called the ‘Ner’. Their armies consisted of the people and their robots. The war ended in a stalemate, both sides being led to extinction,” Morgan informed Quinn.

  “Well, that certainly sounds interesting,” Quinn said. “Could you plot a course to Aqrastion?”

  “Already done,” Morgan replied, knowing Quinn all too well.

  It took Quinn only a few a more minutes to finish his toast before he stood up and left the kitchen. He showered and brushed his teeth, before getting dressed.

  “So,” Quinn said as he walked into the cockpit. “How far away is this planet?” Quinn asked as he a took a seat in the captain’s chair. He flicked a couple of switches above his head which turned on the engines. The usual hum of the engines came fro
m beneath him in the engine room.

  “Shouldn’t take too long, twenty minutes at the max,” Morgan responded. Quinn nodded in response, before igniting the thrusters and sending the Audion shooting off into space.

  Morgan’s estimated arrival time had been right, as per usual. The planet Aqrastion started off as merely a small dot in the distance. But soon the dot seemed to grow to a full-sized planet.

  Aqrastion was a bit on the ‘smaller’ side when it came to planets. If people had lived here, Quinn guessed that in the very centre of the planet was an artificial gravity generator. Otherwise, people would of most likely been floating around everywhere.

  The entire planet seemed to be completely green. Not a lavish, lush green like the jungle around the Reslavi Village had been back on Nespritia. It was a more toned-down green. A lot of the green colour was even further toned down by the presence of clouds which seemed to be adorning the planet. Quinn looked around for water, but he couldn’t see any. Perhaps it resided upon the other side of the planet, yet this Quinn did not know.

  “Looks nice,” Quinn said, nodding his head in approval as the Audion flew towards the planet. Quinn pushed down upon the thrusters, which caused the Audion to go faster towards the planet. Eventually, the cockpit window was no longer filled with the view of the universe, yet now only the dull green on the planet being seen.

  Pretty soon a cone of fire formed around the nose of the ship as the Audion began to enter the atmosphere. It wasn’t too long before it died down and the ship was flying through the sky, towards the clouds and the ground.

  The ground below them sprawled out as a large, green field. Quinn could see mountains in the distance, yet these were nearly obscured by a misty haze.

  Quinn gently lowered the Audion to the ground, taking care to give any sort of creature that might be below them time to move out of the way. The Audion met the soft ground, the thrusters on the Audion died down after touchdown.